Coss the Boss: with Coss Marte

27:42So I was running around the yard. I sit on a bench. So it was in the yard. They have like a baseball field. They had a bench behind the batter's box. And I was sitting there and I lit up a cigarette. And this guy named Bus, we used to call him Bus because he was like a size of a bus. He was over 300 pounds. And he comes up to me. He's like, can you get me a bus down? You know, like give me half of my cigarette. So I give him half of my cigarette. and I don't smoke cigarettes anymore but he was like, yo, I want to lose weight. You know, I want to run and I was like, let's do it. Yeah. You know, and we started running the yard.

28:19First climb. First, not even. I was just like, let's run together. I'm out here no matter what. Let's do it together. So we started that. Another friend of mine came out. Another two of his friends came out and then we just started having like a group of like a dozen guys just form a circle. It's amazing. Casa's Run Club. You know, this is like you never see those guys running around you know brooklyn now or yeah they're just yeah yeah run clubs are the hot new thing yeah you were doing it you know i had you were ahead of the trend in the wrong place yeah yeah exactly um so uh i also remember that you you were put in solitary confinement yeah point what what led to that so towards the end of my incarceration i was about to be released in three years wow because of this early release program got it um it's called shock it's run by ex-marines turn correctional officers they basically tell you to get the up and scream at you and you have eight minutes of brush your teeth shower to get changed and if you have something wrong they're gonna smack the out of you i go through this program to save myself three years from my sentence so at a seven year sentence you do mandatory six out of that and i got caught down to three so i had two months left towards my release um almost done with the program they They called me down to the medical unit.

29:37I'm thinking I'm going to go see a dentist in the medical unit. I go down there, and I've been waiting for a dentist for like three, my whole prison sentence. So I'm going there excited, like I got two months. I'm going to get my teeth whitened. I'm going to get these girls, blah, blah, blah. I'm out of here. Yeah. So I go down there. This also says there's a random drug test. And I'm like, okay, whatever. And so he puts me on the wall. He puts me on the wall and starts searching me very aggressively. and as he got between my legs, I switched my body. And as I twitched my body, he punched me behind my head.

30:13He said, today's not my day, don't fuck with me. So he knocked me down to the ground. I get up from the ground and I turn around and he presses the button in his walkie-talkie, which was the alarm for the whole prison that goes off. About a half a dozen officers come to the scene. They beat the crap out of me. They send me to solitary confinement. Now they're saying that I'm attempting to assault an officer refusing a drug test, all this shit, tier three ticket. Now I'm facing my full maxed out sentence. And I don't know what the fuck to do. I'm in this prison cell, 24 hour lockdown in the box and just pacing back and forth.

30:53And while I'm in there, about a couple hours went by, they passed me a paper, a pen, an envelope. And I quickly grabbed that and I started writing a whole letter to my family letting them know I got into this issue and I needed a lawyer to get the fuck out of this and then I realized I had no stamp to send us a letter with so I'm there just sick just like banging my head on the wall for days you know so while I was in that cell I write out this letter right and I couldn't send it I had to wait 30 days to get a stamp my sister writes me about a week into being in solitary and she says we found out you're in solitary we haven't heard from you.

31:32You haven't called. And my sister's like, Mother Teresa's child, super religious. She tells me, read Psalm 91 from the Bible. And I'm like, get the fuck out of here. I don't need Jesus, a God. I need a lawyer. And so I take that letter, throw it in the corner of my cell and lay back down. And a couple of days went by and out of boredom, I picked up the Bible, a Bible that she gave me on early in my incarceration. And all I used the Bible for was for address numbers, like to take down like who has the best drugs that's going to bring it from Columbia over here, you know, type of people that's in my Bible.

32:06That's my address book. And so I turned to the pages out of boredom. Psalm 91, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the mighty. I will say my Lord, he in my shelter and my fortress, my God, and who I trust. And as I was reading those words, a stamp fell in between my Bible. It was in my Bible and it was the stamp that I needed to send out this letter with. And so I sent out this letter. Nothing really happened. I ended up being in there stuck. And I read the Bible from front to back. And that really just woke me up on realizing what I was doing was wrong, that I was not only like affecting my family, but like thousands of people that I hurt, you know.

32:47And so I said I wanted to get back to society. I was already helping the inmates in the prison yard work out. And so I started writing out with long file sheets of paper, using the side of my Bible, like wrote out a whole crazy 90-day workout plan, wrote out my book there, and came out and called it Cross Athletics. And that was not what I wanted to name it. I was just going to ask, when does the name Conbody come up? Because it's a fucking incredible name. So I didn't like my, because I thought it was soft. When I came home, I wanted to do it like Confit. That was my mind. It was like Confit.

33:23And then when I searched Confit, they were selling out the fucking URL for like$8 ,000. I had no$8 ,000 to pay for a URL at that time or some shit. Got it. And so we started messing around. And between my girl and I at that time, we just came up with Conbody. So after you get out, you're like, this is my path. This is what I'm going to do. Were you thinking like personal training? or were you immediately thinking like bootcamp, business, like where we hire formerly incarcerated individuals? Oh, right away. I already had the idea of doing a bootcamp. The idea of hiring formerly incarcerated individuals came about while I was doing this entrepreneur program.

34:06I got like a MBA Baylor certificate. It was like a 15 minute, 15 month bootcamp. So very intense. 15 minute would have been pretty fast. No, 15 minutes is easy, but 15 months. Okay. Yeah. So it's called the five ventures. They believe that illegal entrepreneurs could become legal entrepreneurs. So while I was building my proper business plan, not the solitary confinement thing that I wrote, I started putting in more thought into whatever he wanted the mission to be. That is pretty amazing that there are programs that are sort of trying to help. Because like I said before, you're an entrepreneur.

34:36You're a business person through and through. And so putting that into something that is positive and putting it into something that is, again, legal is very smart. Another thing I just remembered, was there a shark tank in prison? Is that a made-up story? Is that real? Were there you pitch ideas? So that program is now doing like shark tank competition. Got it. The Baylor. Inside. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, it's not Baylor. It's the five ventures. Got it. But they had accredited that semester by Baylor. Okay. And did you meet Barbara Corcoran from like - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When did that happen? So this shit was crazy.

35:14I graduate the program. There was this pitch competition that they told me about to apply. I get in there. I pitch. I pitch twice, make it to the final round. It's like me and this MIT and Harvard kid and me with a Rikers Island degree. And so I pitched them my idea, and the audience got to vote. So there's YPO, Young Professional Organization. Sure. And so the audience had these like little yes or no or one, two little doubt remotes in each seat. So you see the dial up come up in the behind the screen once after you pitch. So I'm like, fuck. So for me, it was like a 40-60 split. 40 said yes, 60 said no.

36:02One of the kids had 50-50 and this other girl had 60-40. So I'm like, she won it, you know, whatever. and barbara came and she was one of the judges and she was like fuck that this is my guy he's taking it and i'm like what and they had a bottle of papa van winkles there and they left clean yeah at the stage the judges didn't i drank every single glass out of the judge oh my god it was it was for a hundred thousand uh the winner and i didn't get the hundred thousand because they said we don't you're starting a business that's very liable and they say you're hiring people that's ex-cons that may mess up your business and I'm like what?

36:46Fuck that. So they gave me 25 grand and I took it. Wow. And Barbara gave you some money? That was just that group. Just generally she was a part of it and she wrote for you. I think she's the coolest like Shark Tank. I think she's like the realist. Listen, I'm not going to name names but I think a lot those people are fake and phony i feel like she yeah she's the real deal and i met all of them and yeah sure been around there yeah yeah i can't talk about it no the fucking got you under that nda yeah so you get the 25k you got some money from your jordans because your jordans are still at home yep and so you start con body and you get a space on lolo on broom and aldridge a broom and aldridge right yeah that's just the basement of the buddhist temple on the same exact corner where I sold drugs at when I first got locked up at.

37:32And so you just get a, you get rent, you get a, you get a lease. Yeah. Get a lease. And you just start training. Yeah. And start training and started pushing that started blowing up. And then we had the opportunity to do Saks Fifth Avenue. And so when we started the logo, we had the logo looked so fucked up. And, and I remember Scott, my boy, who's my business partner and good friend. And he said, yo, we need to speak to Alex. And I'm like, nah, the logo's fine. And he's like, nah, we need to fix this shit up. I'll pay for it. And I'm like, dope, cool. And so Alex gives me a quote. And I'm like, yo, Scott, bro, I'm broke.

38:14What the fuck is this? He was paying. He's like, I'm not paying for it to cut. I'm like, we can't afford this. So Alex hooked it up. Yeah, shout out to Scott. And I'm happy to enter the story at this moment. But yeah, man, I mean, when I met you, you were pretty new. Like the business was pretty young. You were in that basement. I remember going there. Yeah, 2016. Yeah, there was no windows. It was a bit musty. Musty, very musty. I think we got HVAC lawsuits behind that. Yeah, not the safest maybe environment for us, but you had people there. There were a lot of people that were already signing up.

38:49You were, you know, there was a business. There was a boot camp. Yeah, it was rocking. And we had, at that time, maybe like 10 instructors. Yeah. And it was awesome. And I was instantly like, this is incredible. I want to be a part of this. And I want to help. And I want to just, I thought the branding looked a little, again, it looked like it could have helped. It would have helped you get where you wanted to go. And then I forgot about this, but the Saks Fifth Avenue partnership happened pretty quickly after where you went from this like dusty basement to Saks Fifth Avenue. It's a bougiest store in America.

39:27Yeah, yeah, yeah. Training a whole bunch of white women, you know, they were buying sort of leggings, I guess. That's great, yeah, yeah. But that was a big, was that a sort of big turning point for the business to kind of go from like. Hell, yeah. It really like legitimized us as like a real business. Yeah. And like even before then, like people didn't even want to lease to me because of my record. Sure. before i even found that basement on the buddhist temple i went to like 20 spots and and and then after we were in sacks we were getting calls like hey can you come look at this you know space blah blah blah we have this is everything you know everything's set up for fitness blah blah blah and i'm like yeah motherfuckers is like xing me out you know i mean that's yeah the cosign you know and it did in many ways you know gonna give you guys that sort of like you know vouch that like this is a very legitimate business and how did that come to me like they just so i spoke on stage uh at this like wellness conference and still told my story and this white lady came up to me and was like yo i love you and i was like what and she was like here's my card i want to help yeah and no she didn't even give me her card she was like give me your number so i i gave her my number she was like send me your email so i texted my email she emails me back and writes Saks opportunity.

40:45And I'm like, what a ball of Saks? Because it didn't register for me like S-A-K-S opportunity. And then she didn't even get specific. She had no footer on her email. Was like, let me know when you can talk. And I'm like, all right, cool. And she was like, hey, we want you to move into the space. And I'm like, what? Yeah. I remember it was really cool because it was like a wellness floor. And Saks has like a million floors. And so they just were like, this is gonna be our wellness kind of like move and what other businesses were there was peloton there or peloton was right next to us yeah that's crazy yeah different yoga studios yeah yeah it was awesome and i remember the first day i went there and i've told you the story where i i sort of went to the opening and you were there and it was just a big thing and your mom was there and i just was like i've worked on a lot of design projects in my life and i've never felt proud of anything i've ever done and been a part of because i was like man what i'm doing is just one small piece of helping this guy.

41:41Oh, no, yeah. It's an amazing story. Alex, you're changing lives, you know? You're being part of, like, this step is, like, really rewriting other people's scripts, you know, just because you're putting me in that different position, and that position is being seen as, like, this is legit, you know, because of you. Wow. Wow. I don't know what to do with that compliment, but I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I mean, I guess I just, you know, you and I instantly got along, and, you know, Scott said a step. I designed a dating app for Scott. Life is weird that way. You just meet people. I think you've always been a really great storyteller.

42:18I think that was also a thing that I instantly recognized, just hearing you tell your story here. But also, you had so many good instincts. You had people taking mug shots after a class. Yeah, they still do it. Yeah, and I was like, this is fucking genius. You had so many good creative ideas. I just was like, you know, I just want to help and be a part of it. And I think it really changed my life, honestly, because at that point, I'm still working at Coca-Cola. Like I'm a corporate guy working in my regular job. And I was thinking about Center, like my own company. And I was, you know, I didn't know I wanted to work with entrepreneurs.

42:58I wanted to work with small businesses. I didn't want to work with giant companies as much as I wanted to, like, work with people that were doing exciting things. and you were like to me i was like this is like this is the coolest thing i could possibly do and uh and yeah man it was uh yeah it changed my life too honestly so and i just loved how much you have embraced it and like again you wear the merch every day you you said i remember you got the second space and i came by and you were like setting it up and i'm like is this up to code and you're like fuck code you're like i was like dude bro you don't even know i know there's no code I was like Koss is the most real entrepreneur I was like you know we work with so many entrepreneurs everyone's a you know business hustler I'm like you're not a hustler Koss is a fucking hustler I have no choice no I know but it's again it's like it's so much credit to you when did you do the TED Talk when was that?

43:48TED Talk so I did my first one in 2014 yeah and you've done two right? I did four four damn it's funny I've been telling people you've done two TED Talks so now I gotta up that up you've done four TED Talks three kids four TED Talks that's fucking yeah no i did one uh hudson new york was my first one and then stuyvesant berkeley and china i mean i mean it's incredible i mean because people should need to hear a story and it's so inspiring and it's so like it's so motivating it just shows you're the perfect poster child for prison form which we haven't even really spoken about but it's like people that get out of the system find their way back into the system that's crazy and that's the big problem right Where it's like people can't get jobs.

44:30People don't want to hire them. People don't want to give them loans. People don't want to invest in their businesses. That's frustrating. It's very frustrating. You're setting somebody to really fail. Yeah, in the future. You keep saying no, no, no, no, no. When we were kids and our parents said no, what are we going to do? We're going to rebel. We're going to throw ourselves on the floor. We're going to do a sneaky and we're going to do it anyway. And so why not figure out a path to have – Like right now we literally have a program where we're training inmates inside, giving them certifications, giving them a job day one coming out of the prison system, have an eight-week training program, internship, get full-time job right after.

45:09That's unbelievable. That's so important. That's so important. And again, that's like, yeah, it's a boot camp, but it's also like, it's about those people. Yeah. It's about like Bobby Charles and like all the people that are like, you've changed their lives by giving them this opportunity. And it's like, that's what I've always felt too. It's like the more people that go to this class is the more other, you know, inmates that you can help. And people who stick with us. We got people working with us for eight years now, seven years. Oh, it's amazing, man. And so just to round it out, New York licensing.

45:43So marijuana becomes legal, you know, in New York. and they start this program where ex-convicts who have been locked up for selling drugs get licenses. What a fucking crazy thing to do. I was following the New York market for a very long time, like the medical side. I got into cannabis because my friend in Massachusetts asked me to be his CEO over there while I was running Combody here. Wow. So a legal business in another state. Yeah, and he asked me, this was 2017. He got one of the first licenses in Massachusetts. And I said, I was like, all right, fuck it. You're like, let's go back. I'm going to split my whole body.

46:24Yeah, but we're going to do it. And so he put me, his lawyer said, no, they rejected you because you have a criminal record. You cannot work at a dispensary. And I'm like, what the fuck? And then there was this kid named Josh Weinstein. He started this program, this club get together called Canada Gathers. So he was doing like group discussions, advocating for cannabis, you know, pushing in the cannabis parade, you know, for legalization, all this stuff. And so he asked me to be on his board. And this was 2018. And I started sharing my story about like how I got rejected for this stupid shit. Like how you're not allowing somebody that has a weed record, you know, that should be a net positive for me.

47:11Yeah, yeah, I'm a live experience. And so while they legalized 2021, they dropped some regulation that same year in August. They said that their first licenses that they were going to give to were for people that had a net profitable business for at least two years and the conviction. So there's not many people in the state of New York that meet that client. There was 903 people that applied. I'm shocked there's that many people that have. No, the people just applied. That doesn't mean they qualified. they were trying to get through it and some people got through through advocating and stuff like that and so now we have two stores we're working on our third opening and have over 70 people working for us 70 people?

48:0170 people one of my favorite parts of the story is you email me and you're like can I get a logo for Con Bud? And I was like, I was thinking about it. I was like, man, maybe I should bring this into the studio. Maybe I'll have a bunch of people design and work on. I was like, no, I got this. I'll just do it myself. And so I spent like an afternoon on it. Like I just was like, okay, I'm going to do this. And I put together a deck I sent to you. And like, I think, I don't even know if you wrote me back. You're probably like, yo, I love it. And like, and that was it. And the next thing I know, it's on the side of a fucking building.

48:35I was like, I didn't even send him the files. I just sent him a PDF. I was like, this guy. Yeah, we're still working out of that PDF. I don't think you got the files to me. Yo, that's – it's like you didn't even get the, like, working files. You were just like, I got it from here. I'm good. And you're, you know, selling merch and T-shirts. And, again, like, I just am so happy that it's working. And also the space that you've got, right, is the mascot building. So you have con body up top. Yep. And then you have con bud below. Yeah, get your body right, get your mind right. What a fucking tagline.

49:08Do people go take fitness class and then go downstairs? Every day. Oh, my God. Every day. That fucking rules. Literally, I'm teaching class and telling them, get your mind right downstairs after you get your body right here. And people are walking downstairs and buying their drinks, their edibles, their smoke, whatever they form, they want to consume. They're getting it. This is the best. How much better is the weed you're selling now than it was back in the day? They're still not sour diesel, the original sour diesel. That sucks. It's hard to find. That's that vintage memory. Oh, man. I got caught with five pounds in my last case.

49:45That was very memorable. You got to find it. You got to get somebody on it. I've been searching on a cut. It's hard. Nobody has it. Somebody says they have it, but they're going to sell it for a million dollars. Oh, God. Amazing. So I got to get you out of here because you got somewhere to go. But really quickly, this is a documentary? So Calm Body vs. Everyone premiered at Sundance. this year. Tell me about this. So I partnered up with Debra Granix. She's a four-time Academy Award director nominee. She's like a motherfucking monster. So 10 years ago, I met her friend on the train and we had a conversation.

50:25We exchanged numbers. We had a meeting with him and Deb in a coffee shop. And she was like, can I follow you around with a camera? And I was like, I don't care. You know, I had no idea who the hell she was. And it was not until like four years after she's recording me, Ben Foster, that girl from that 70s show who did like the orange, is the new black, the tall with the black hair. Yeah. The girlfriend, Piper's girl. Her and Ben Foster walking down the block and they see Debra and they were like in awe. Like they start worshiping her and I'm like, who the fuck are you? And then I was like, let me go search her.

51:01on Google and I'm like, oh shit. And she's just been like following me around. And so long story short, she followed me around for over 10 years now. Yeah. I remember when we were working on the branding project, I remember meeting her because she was filming you a bunch. Am I in this doc? What's going on here? Yeah, I think so. What? Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. You got to see it, Alex. I guess, where's it going? Is it going to Netflix? We're pitching it. We're pitching it. Hulu? We're pitching it because it's six part docuseries. She's chopping it down to five, but like. Oh, episodic. It's episodic and it's a lot.

51:38It's a lot. I'm so excited. So at Sundance did it premiere? It's two parts, four and five. We jumped right into the middle of it. So people can see crazy stuff. But yeah. How was it received? A standing ovation. Everybody, great reviews. It was good. You know, I'm just like, if the networks buy it, then that's a decent check. I mean, that would be huge. Again, it would also get the brand out there. I watch a lot of documentaries. You know, you could be like, what's his name? Ryan Serhan, the selling Manhattan guy. You know, he's flipping million dollar homes because he's got TV shit. You know, so I don't know, man.

52:17That's super exciting. And certainly let me know whenever that is out there. Because, you know, I want to see it. when I found out I was like what the fuck I need to go see this it's powerful because she's tracking like my journey of coming out trying to start a business and all the adversities that I had to face I could imagine and then hiring everybody does it go up to Con Bud or no does it go up that's a separate documentary we're working on right now damn dude you're fucking so yeah what's next like what are you working on right now it's separate doc and then opening up more stores and you know changing diapers bro yeah three kids four TED talks three shops how many calm bodies just the one just the one okay cool do you spend is calm bud really kind of more of your more of your time now or just splitting 50-50 I'm like up and down the stairs all day you know I live down the block so it's like yeah I'm in the shop well well Koss I want to say thank you for coming and like thank you for telling the story and I'm just so glad that we met back then and we stayed friends and I'm just so proud of you and everything you've done it's honestly it's so inspiring and it's it puts so much other shit in perspective too just like you know all the stress of life and business and like if you know if you've gone through some real fucking shit and you've come out you know a better person helping other people inspiring people making shit happen and you know and and just and wearing the merch every day yeah which uh you know exactly you got to represent your own brand so um thank you so much man thank you for coming kevin any Any last words?

53:50No, that's it. That's it. Thank you, man. Thank you. Have a good one.

54:16Thank you.

54:20I don't make love, baby, we make magic Come home with a thug, let's get shit Cracking always well Baby, cause shit happens She leave the back seat just a freak in the Magnum Hopped out the Magnum, hopped in the tray Just to let the top back and thank God for the day Who gives a fuck what a hater gotta say I made a couple million dollars last year dealing Wait, still in the streets, strapped with them thangs She in love with a G, so she tatted my name I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far, 10 black made backs back to back in the lane I'ma make it rain, then I'ma make it back, you are just a lame little homie that's a fact Working with the police, acting like you know me, fresh out of jail already in your hoesie I got a flashlight, I'm getting fresh out of it, bout to have the parking lot on Smash Plus I got a 7 with a 4, 54 in the blue, that bitch got 125 on the dash I'm the biggest boss that you seen thus far Cause it's just another day in the life of the goddamn boss T-Pain Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss Boss

55:38Shorty straight diggin' me And I ain't even rich I know you niggas on the sideline Like ain't that a bitch, I'm on my job And I ain't get no, cause it's just another day in the life of the goddamn boss I'm the biggest boss that you seen thus far Got the biggest star Spanish bras, no bra Call it other lane for the walks in the park They ain't come to play games, I just wanna play my bra Tell your girlfriend to come talk with my dog We straight G's and we came hit a ball Bottle after bottle and I'm sure you count them all Then we off to that shiver and taking off Baby slow it down cause you're moving too fast Yeah it's too fine to be moving too fast Back to the thuggy, now I'm sipping scissors All my niggas love it, baby that's my wizard Sack for the jeans, five bones for the scissors I don't smoke twenty, they're honey for the iszer I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far You can tell by the songs that's standing by the car I got a French line, I'm dead, French outfit Bout to have the parking lot on Smash Plus I got a 7 with a 4 with a 4 in the world That bitch got 125 on the dash She like a big boss I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far Cause it's just another day in the life of the goddamn boss

57:21I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far

57:40Thank you.